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Tired of Turning Pages

This is somewhat pathetic.

Or.

Rather.

I am somewhat pathetic.

I'm a fan of C.J. Sansom's Matthew Shardlake series. I devoured the first four books in the series - after Ben Witherington wrote about them. Most of my family and many of my friends have become Sansom fans because of the pleasure we have all experienced in the good reads he has provided. The next book in the series would only add to that pleasure.

At some point in the last year, when Amazon announced the fifth book, Heartstone, I must have pre-ordered it. Long before I ever considered becoming a Kindle-ite.

The book arrived two weeks ago. Imbi has already read it. And thoroughly enjoyed it.

I've read a bunch of other books on my Kindle 3 - but have resisted picking up the new Shardlake book. And not because I don't want to read it. But simply because I'd rather read it on my Kindle - and I'm just barely smart enough NOT to order and download it onto my device when we already own the Hardcover.

I just whined at Imbi about not wanting to read it as an actual book.

"I'd prefer to read it on my Kindle."

"What, have you forgotten how to turn physical pages? Are you too weak to pick the book up?"

"Sigh."

But. Look. The book IS really big. And I'm old.

Dreaming of Another Summer

Another Kaili Kinnon shot. Of Dani, our Cocker Spaniel/Poodle Mix. Asleep on the front lawn at the Lake - on a cool fall day.

Her She Come's Now, Singing Monet, Monet

An art shot taken by Kaili Kinnon - near here. Shot with Medri Kinnon Productions' Canon T2i with a Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 lens.

This is the song the title references - from Tommy James & the Shondelles. And the shot reminded Imbi and I of Monet.

The Bishop and Belcher - not the Bird and Baby

What a great name for a place to hold a Theology Pub in downtown Toronto!

My buddy, Triple D (aka Dr. Darryl Dash - though he'd rarely, if ever, use the title) was the instigator for the Theology Pub Toronto. Here's the motivation for his instigation;

Here’s what I’d love to find: a group of people who get together and:

Eat. There has to be food. Something happens when you turn to others around a table and eat steak and kidney pie or whatever, and lift a glass together. The whole experience becomes relational.

Discuss theology. I am tired of pragmatism. We need to get practical but we can’t start there. We can’t just emote, neither can we only talk how-to’s. Ideas have the power to change the world. I love sitting together with others who are not just wrestling with what to do but who are talking about what to think, who are dipping into some of the best thinkers of the past, and who believe the good stuff is found at the theological, not the methodological, level.

Are open but orthodox. Some of my best interactions have been when people from different backgrounds and beliefs are thrown together. Some groups I’m part of are too insular. I want a group that is orthodox but in which we benefit from those who think differently. In other words, it has to be a group in which we talk about our differences honestly but without getting all polemical.

Care about mission. If people like Christopher Wright are right (and I think they are) and mission is the basis of the entire Bible, then good theology will propel us into mission. We should become a group of people who are changing the world around us. [All emphasis and links are from Darryl's original.]

Imbi, Liam and I have thoroughly enjoyed all the Theo Pubs we've attended and we look forward to the next one on November 22nd @ The Bishop and Belcher at 7pm. (Though I don't think Li will be back from Europe yet.) If you're in the Toronto area and find the above quote from Triple D compelling, please join us.

NOTE: Imbi took the above shots, which is why she isn't in them - and this was taken at the 2nd location for the TheoPub - which was a restaurant on The Danforth.

I Don't Tweet, I Twadvertise

Me. Me. Me.

My favourite note on which to begin a song about my favourite subject.

Which.

Of course.

Is.

Me.

Eons ago in blogdom, when Google was a mere eight-year old, I blogged about what I called the Generous Web. People like Kathy Sierra & Doc Searls - to name but two of hundreds - blew my mind with how willing they were to freely share their creative thoughts and ideas with any and all who visited their outposts on these interwebs. They were and still are great examples of how social media can be powerfully positive. (Although the ungenerous web took Kathy out of blogdom.)

But the interwebs are also a great place for narcissists to sing their own praises - to shout "look at me, look at me" from the interweb rooftops - places like Twitter and Facebook. (The Facebook fan concept did make me slightly crazy - although I probably was already close.)

After a slow start, I became a committed Twitter user 3,328 Tweets ago. Unlike many, I follow a limited number of other users - 212 to be exact - people whose thoughts, ideas & humour I'm interested in.

At the writing completion of this blog post - that number will be 211.

A well known blogger, who I already follow via Google Reader, only uses Twitter to announce his blog posts. He doesn't Tweet, he Twadvertises. His engagement with Twitter is simply to shout the aforementioned, "look at me, look at me."

The Cluetrain promise of social media is conversation and, in fairness to this Twadvertiser, he does engage in conversation at his blog - but Twitter is simply an advertising medium for him.

Now, I do use Twitter to make people aware of new blog posts - but try to limit my blog Twadvertising to two or three times during the day - and feel guilty about doing that. I more often try and point folk at something I've found interesting, share what I'm up to or feebly attempt to be humourous.

Of course, the irony is that right after I unfollow the trigger for this post - I'll Tweet about it's publishing.

Pastors in Post-Christendom - Fitch & Nelson

This is the third (and, for the moment, final) segment of the conversation between Dave Fitch and Gary Nelson.

They discuss what it means to be a Pastor in Post-Christendom - a calling that lacks social significance in the eyes of much of society. Gary asks whether perhaps today's ministers in a post-Christendom context resist "missional" as it appears to further devalue their social standing.

UPDATE: Please read Dave's post, The Kind of Pastors We Need after you've seen the video below.

The image from Get Religion graphically suggests what North American Post-Christendom, aka the United States of Canada, looks like today.

The video ends with both Dave and Gary telling us what their hopes are for the church as we move into the teens of this 21st Century.

Pastors in Post-Christendom from Bill Kinnon on Vimeo.

You can subscribe to my Missional Channel on Vimeo for more videos on the Missional Conversation. There are 14 videos available at this time.

Steve Jobs on the Perfect Group Size

The Mac team they were all in one building and they eventually got to one hundred people. Steve had a rule that there could never be more than one hundred people on the Mac team. So if you wanted to add someone you had to take someone out. And the thinking was a typical Steve Jobs observation: “I can’t remember more than a hundred first names so I only want to be around people that I know personally. So if it gets bigger than a hundred people, it will force us to go to a different organization structure where I can’t work that way. The way I like to work is where I touch everything.” Through the whole time I knew him at Apple that’s exactly how he ran his division.

John Sculley on Steve Jobs from Cult of Mac.

Theological Education in the 21st Century

In this second video, Gary Nelson, President of Tyndale University College & Seminary and Dave Fitch, Associate Professor of Evangelical Theology at Northern Seminary talk about what theological education looks like now and what it needs to look like. And that theological education is not simply for full-time seminarians, nor is it to simply to create full-time ministers, missionaries or other paid church staff.

Nelson/Fitch - Theological Education in the 21st Century from Bill Kinnon on Vimeo.

Please note that missonally-focused videos shot & produced by myself and Imbi Medri-Kinnon are available at the Missional Channel on Vimeo. You can also grab the Widget for this channel from the right hand column of this blog under Missional Videos and place it on your blog or website.

Missional - Does the Word still have Value?

Nelson/Fitch - Missional - Does the word still have value? from Bill Kinnon on Vimeo.

Imbi and I shot this latest video (the first of three or four parts) at the end of August in the Office of the President at Tyndale University College and Seminary - set up when we found out Dave was coming into Toronto to meet with Gary (and spend a bit of time with us, too.) Gary Nelson had only been in the position of President & CEO at Tyndale for five weeks.

We first met Gary in the early '90's when he lead BUILD - Baptist Urban Involvement in Leadership Development (if I remember the acronym's meaning correctly). Gary left BUILD to become the pastor of a multi-cultural, downtown church in Edmonton. Some of his story there informs his important book, Borderlands - A Congregation's Introduction to Missional Living. (Len Hjalmarson does a very good series of blog posts on Gary's book.)

Prior to joining Tyndale, Gary spent the previous decade as General Secretary of Canadian Baptist Ministries where his heart for mission both in Canada and around the world was very much in evidence. Imbi and I confess real excitement with Gary's new position at Tyndale. We think you'll discover why in this video and the next two that we will put up over the next week or so.

This first video came out of Imbi and I asking Dave and Gary whether the word "missional" had become so over-used/mis-used that it no longer really had value.

The next video in this series focuses on what Theological Education Looks Like in the 21st Century. The third video looks at The Pastor in Post-Christendom and ends with Gary and Dave reflecting on what they are excited about for the church in the midst of this liminal church space.

These three videos will be added to the Missional Channel @ Vimeo - where our friend, Dave Fitch, figures prominently. Featured in those videos are Alan Hirsch, Graham Cray (who leads Fresh Expressions), Ed Stetzer, Cam Roxburgh and Andrew Jones.

David Fitch, Gary Nelson, Tyndale University

Afraid of Reporting the News

I confess that I was troubled by the coverage given to the small town "pastor" who thought burning the religious book of another religion was the "Christian" thing to do. When the Vatican, Canterbury and the White House all weighed in on his intended actions, it simply became surreal.

And the story, created by the media and fanned into fiery frenzy by those who despise anything that appears to be "fundamentalist" Christianity actually did cause loss of life - even though, once he used way more than his allotted 15 minutes of fame, the "pastor" de-ignited his intentions.

Newsweek, hardly a trusted source of information for me, made this comment,

...the news media may have to examine their role in this episode. News organizations may well need to ask what public good was served by giving minute-by-minute updates of the antics of a little-known preacher. Jones's decision to burn holy books near his sparsely attended church became global news because, well, it was disseminated globally. By making it big news, the media had a hand in prompting the subsequent violence.

It was a story that was only worthy of coverage on the back pages of that "pastor's" local, small city newspaper.

But what about the Molly Norris story?

"The what?," you ask.

The Molly Norris story.

Norris was (and "was" is the operative word) the Seattle cartoonist, who in a moment of First Amendment exhilaration (and prompted by the South Park censored episode), thought it would be appropriate to create an "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day".

I was peripherally aware of the story but it came into focus with this Mollie Z. post @ Get Religion, posted in mid-September. She comments,

So Norris shows some solidarity with these victimized cartoonists. Outrage ensued — protests, riots, you name it. She quickly backtracked and explained she didn’t mean to offend. Too late, Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki declared, putting her on an execution hitlist.

I've watched as there has only been a light sprinkling of coverage of this story in the past three weeks.

When I think about the millions of pixels spilled on the Florida "pastor" story, I ask where the anger or simple concern is for Molly Norris. Proclaiming the fatwa, al-Awlaki says, "her proper abode is Hellfire." He wants and expects her to be hunted down and executed.

Is this not a significant story?

She's lost her livelihood and her identity - forced into hiding at her own expense - because she believed her First Amendment rights protected her as she dared challenge religious censorship - well, actually she backed down after suggesting the challenge. Yet, she will spend the rest of her days looking over her shoulder wondering whether she will see death stalking her.

But where is the media. Where are the bloggers and twitterers standing in solidarity with Molly - whether you agree or disagree with her once suggested day?

Where are the spiritual leaders and politicians stating that this response to Norris is outrageous?

They are all, predominantly, silent.

To paraphrase Edmund Burke, "All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing."

UPDATE: (Before posting) This just popped up in Google Reader, Street Preaching is so Uncouth. Another Molly Z. post from Get Religion.

It is fascinating to me how much coverage the media devoted to the non-burn of the Koran in Florida compared to the actual “going ghost” of Seattle cartoonist Molly Norris or the actual arrest of four street evangelists in Dearborn. I would just love for someone who was involved in the coverage of the Koran burn threat to explain why they wrote eleventy billion stories on the Florida pastor and none on these other situations.

Fascinating or simply sad?